The Anime Season So Far Summer 2017

By Luiggi Cavanna

It is that time again where I talk about a few anime of this season that have caught my attention, and believe me it was hard because this season look so underwhelming, welcome to “The Anime Season So Far”. I could literally just fill the blog with how awesome Owarimonogatari 2nd season was, but that will mean that I’ll have to talk about the whole monogatari series in general, and Owarimonogatari technically was a movie divided in 3 parts. So just watch Bakemonogatari and if you like it, welcome to the fandom, here’s your toothbrush, don’t get spooked by the spooky Ougi and remember Kaiki best girl. For now, let’s talk about a few shows that are not sequels that came out this season.

But for real, it was so GOOD!!

You know, I almost skip this season all together, but thanks to third parties I end up watching the following shows. Actually thanks to a Facebook video I end up watching “Gamers!”

Pretty much I started watching because I love fighting games.

Before you go jumping into this anime like, “oh boy an anime about gaming”, not quite. At it’s core this show is a romantic comedy, the chaotic type at that. The gaming part is the reason why our characters interact with each other, but the meat of the show is in all the crazy misunderstanding that the characters find themselves in each episode.

The show’s practically a giant misunderstanding.

I like how this show builds your expectation towards something and then just buggers off into a different direction. This works in part because we are use to shows of this kind and we know how they normally go, so when they shoot into a complete opposite, and wacky situation, it does bring out some laughter. Also it helps that it has two male lead characters, one serving as the straight man to the stupidity of the other. Believe me, this show wouldn’t be passable if we only the had the plain super nice, but dim witted, main character in a harem situation.

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This show is walking a fine line though.

I really hope this show doesn’t crash and burn because it is walking a fine line, after all comedy is a tricky thing. I mean I have enjoyed it so far but at the time I’m writing this I’m on episode 5, and it was a rough one! This episode went overboard with the misunderstandings, even our straight man indulged in unhealthy amounts of stupidity! I understand though that anime has those episodes and let’s hope for this show to bounce back. Now from a romantic comedy that focuses a lot on the comedy side let's go to one that is into the romance part a bit more.

Tsurezure Children

Tsurezure Children is a breath of fresh air when it comes down to the genre and the key is variety. The diversity of perspective is what sets this show apart. We don’t have a lead couple we have multiples, we don’t have just one story we have many to pick from. From the perfect couple, the guy that just can’t tell the clueless girl he likes his feelings, to the A grade student and the delinquent, pick and you will find a good fun story to follow.

He is a d`ck and she totally needs stop pretending to be a delinquent.

When it come to downsides, I guess that if you find a couple unbearable you’ll have to wait until the story moves to the next one. To be honest it's a solid show so far, so if you like romance and comedy this is your show. Enough of romantic comedies though, let’s talk about some fantasy and boy I have a show for you.

Deceivingly cute, but you know that someone is going to get mangled.

Made in Abyss is just incredible! So far. It has such a great, and solid, first episode that people could use it as a guide of how to make a first episode, it’s that great. The first episodes tell us so much about the world without a long winded exposition that when the show decides to give us an explanatory speech about this world, it does it in front of a gorgeous view and we are ready to listen.

Tell me more!!

What is it about then? In a island, many years ago, a giant hole was discovered! Ok,listen it gets better. This is no ordinary hole, it’s filled with relics and artifacts that are worth fortunes, so people decided to build a town around it and dive into the abyss to acquire these relics, similar to a gold Rush town. The abyss is not a friendly place though. The abyss is inhabited by monstrous creatures, and also, there's some mystical forces that affect any person diving in commonly known as “the curse of the abyss”.

I really like this little map that appears at the end of an episode telling us where they are at that moment.

The curse of the abyss works similar to divers sickness in the real world. Ascending back to the surface from the abyss puts a strain on the body, and the deeper you go the worst the curse gets.

From puking, bleeding out from every orifice in your body, to losing your humanity

or a gruesome death, it gets harcore down there

I don't want to give too much away, part of the fun is discovering things for yourself, but definitely recommend checking this one out. I mean, it's been awhile since we had a good fantasy anime but believe me, I could’ve made a whole blog about this anime alone but I’ll wait until it's done.

You know I’m going to say it again, the cutesy looks scares me! I watched Madoka Magika, I know how

F’ed up cutesy anime can get!

I have some thoughts about some other shows this season. I like the fate universe, the characters are great for other media like video games. I’m really addicted to the mobile game Fate/grand order, but they need to chill with the anime. After all, the whole “this hero was actually a female” loses its impact after the 100th time, and maybe they could make another fighting game please.

Oh jeez I don’t know, F’ing Saber maybe!?

“Centaur no Nayami” your expository speech at the beginning of the series left me with more questions! If everything has six limbs, what about the Sheep people eh? Do the horns count as limbs? Do you know what horns are? Do they beep beep like the sheep? Oh! And did you have to have an episode about the main characters checking each others vaginas? You know, if you take the whole “monster girl” thing out of the show I would be a bland slice of life anime. I know they are trying to touch on topics of discrimination and stuff, but I’m distracted by whole lot other stuff. By the way “Hajimete no Gal” is just trash, and it’s not even good trash that’s worth trashing. I couldn’t go pass episode 2 so I’m gonna leave it at that.

I’m done watching anime for a bit.

So what are you thoughts on this anime season? Any show that you want me to check out? Please don’t say “Hajime no Gal”, but let us know. Now I return to the deepest darkest corners of my dwelling. Good-bye for now my friends.

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DEFENDERS REVIEW ( SPOILERS ALERT)

BY COREY FLOYD

Marvel’s Defenders came out Friday and of course, I entered BINGE MODE!!!!. If you have not watched the other Netflix Marvel series and attempt to Jump into this one you will be lost So do yourself a favor and watch those first. For everyone else let’s break this down.

The Hand is the main Bad Guys of this series. If you followed Daredevil and Iron Fist you should know about the underground group of ninjas dedicated to world domination. And can be resurrected from the dead. The leaders of the Hand are visually the most diverse group  Madam Gao who you have seen in Daredevil & Iron Fist, Bakudo from Iron Fist. Sci Fi royalty Sigourney Weaver plays what appears to be the Leader of the hand Alexandria.  

As well as guerilla style member Sowende and their hunter Murakami. When All else fails they have their ace on the hole “The Black Sky” and all powerful assassin which is a resurrected Elektra who died at the end of DD season 2.  

It’s like an evil version of the Captain Planet and the  Planeteers.    LOL. Seriously I’m not gonna go through everything but I there are a few things on my radar that we gotta talk about. I will attempt to not spoil everything but……… I said I’d try.

Jessica Jones and Luke Cage don’t contribute much to the story. For the most part, their commentary is what I enjoyed. They didn’t provide much to the progression of the story. In some scenes, it felt like they could have been replaced with furniture. Also   Luke spends most of this series getting his ass whopped!!!. I understood when he went against Iron Fist but when a member of the hand just kicked him to the ground its just seemed so weird. Even Elektra kicked him unconscious. Luckily they wrote in 2 parts where he was useful like breaking a door so the cops couldn’t follow them. Even Jessica only had a few contributions to the series other than being a Jerk. Holding an elevator by its Cables so Iron Fist and Luke could escape and when Iron Fist went rogue and she knocked him out other than that.

 

Misty, Claire, Colleen.  Colleen’s and Claire were pretty essential to the team. Colleen being a former member of the hand feels she has to help put an end to them. Claire is the voice of reason as well as the field medic cause every team needs a healer (Gamer Joke!!) Then we have Misty Knight the street wise detective with a hero's heart. I say that because she wants to be more than a cop but she cannot abandon her sworn duty. She dances a line between wanting to help the gang and locking them up. Eventually, she joins them but the inevitable happens in the process loses her arm. Maybe next time we will get what I know I’ve been waiting for.

Well, guess it’s time to talk about our main characters. Despite this supposing to be an ensemble piece. The series has Matt (Daredevil) retiring after season 2. But as the story unfolds around him he is conflicted about putting the suit back on. Until he sees Elektra. His love her made him suit up. His character arc was very simple and sweet and a boring cliche. Don't wanna give away too much so I will leave it at that. Now it’s time for the weakest link. Iron Fist sucks. Finn Jones needs to be replaced as well as his writers. His character arc had him doubling down on his white savior mentality which I already found perturbing and now he’s rich & Naive on top of that. His character sets the team up for more failure than Daredevil. Finn Jones went from a D to a D+ when it comes to fighting choreography. It’s actually quite insulting. Several scenes had a scenario where he was wearing a hoodie during the fight and when the fight was over than he would take it off. Is he locked into his contract? I hope not cause this was a bad move. Overall the show was meh. Grade C-  You know what spoiler alert PUNISHER is not in this so D+. But he has a sweet trailer that you can check out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFfBd-Oyhug which will be coming out later this year. Next time you hear from me I should be talking about Deathnote.

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